Rebirth

She shakes her head, “Mikihiko.” He draws up short at her gentle yet firm tone, “Yes, it's true there's something going on but…” Shaking her head and uncaring what anyone who potentially reviews the footage may think, she casts an illusion to black out what it can see as well as a sound barrier, “You recall what came out when I was called to action during the Yokohama Incident, right?”

His face tightens, but he nods, “It's more work similar to that. I'd like to avoid dragging any of the rest of you into things though, so I've already arranged for Master to shadow you all to look for Ancient Magicians and… another group to keep an eye on you as well. I insisted you all start pairing up for safety reasons as more of an additional safety measure than anything. But much like I was called on during the Yokohama Incident, I'm being called to help because a dangerous criminal was found. They're currently hiding out with some of the Traditionalists that hold a grudge against the ninth lab, which is the reason I haven't given the all clear yet, but there's no reason for you to get involved. There wasn't any avoiding the Yokohama Incident since it was a full fledged invasion, but while I know you're all going to be legal adults soon, I'd rather you kids enjoy as much of your childhood as you have left as long as possible.”

Mikihiko searches her eyes, then sighs as he brushes a hand through his hair, “Alright. Though, just so you know, if it's any help, if they're with those sorts that have a grudge against the ninth lab, then they're only a faction of the Traditionalists. Those who claim the name of Traditionalists are a large group made up of both good and bad ancient magicians. It would be fine to say that the Ancient Magicians are divided into the Traditionalists, those who support them, and those who oppose them. They tend to be disliked by those who have actual traditional roots, since it's more practitioners who feel constrained by hierarchy and discipline and lack status. Those who sympathize with the Traditionalists who are not associated with a Tradition that is.”

She hums thoughtfully as she brings a loosely curled finger to her bottom lip, “Is that so… Then, from that description, I assume the Yoshida are amongst those who dislike these various ‘Traditionalists’ factions?” Mikihiko nods, “Then, if nothing else, you should report to your family and spread the basics I've told you on what's happening so other families or Ancient Magicians who aren't with them can distance themselves even further to prevent potentially being caught up in it. Please pass on an official request to your family to keep it discreet though.”

Mikihiko nods, “I will.”

He still doesn't look very happy, but she ruffles his hair and shoves his head forward playfully, “Don't look so worried Mikihiko. It'll be dealt with, and even if you aren't there, Master has some of his disciples keeping an eye on you guys. Honestly, it probably only got to the point of you noticing a Shikigami around because Master undoubtedly ordered them to be discrete and they didn't want to draw your attention and trusted you to be able to handle it. And like I said, I have another group keeping an eye on you all as well.” She teasingly nudges him, “If anything, just see it as an excuse to see Mizuki even more.”

He flushes lightly as he looks away, “I don't need an excuse to see my girlfriend more often!”

She laughs.

She's just entering the main house after appearing in the side basement purely dedicated for her Teleport Gate -though her appearing there is just a bluff to hide her apparition- when she catches Maya saying her name at the tailend of a conversation with Hayama. Her Elemental Sight had almost habitually focused to some extent on Maya's office the moment she'd appeared, so it wasn't unusual at all, but she was curious as to what they were talking about regarding her. It's for the reason she peeks at the Eidos logs from in Maya's office out of curiosity as she heads up, but they'd just been discussing why she was put on this mission because there's been some stirring from the branch heads in dissatisfaction. It was little more than that because the Kuroba were in over their heads a bit though.

As she approaches Maya's office, the part of her mind that had tracked Hayama with more focus than what she gives most of the info her Elemental Sight was telling her since she's actually fond of Hayama spots him running into Mitsugu in the gardens.

As she knocks on Maya's office door, she idly follows their conversation. At Maya's call to enter, she heads in, surprising Maya, but she's certainly not unhappy to see her, “Toshiko! This is a surprise!”

She closes the door behind her, “Mm, unfortunately, I'm not here for pleasantries. It's closer to the Thesis Competition, so Sora and Hoshi are going to start moving to investigate since the Kuroba haven't gotten anything solid for me yet. It's sensitive enough that I wanted to come in person to hammer out the details.”

Maya sets her pen down as her expression turns a bit more serious, “Mm. The Kuroba are having more difficulty then usually aren't they. Are you sure it's wise for them to poke their heads out though?”

She smiles, “Maya, my husband used to be one of the best assassins in the world in another life, and my sister in law was pretty comparable. They're perfectly capable of handling it, and I'm confident in the runic magic I made a while ago protecting their identities.”

Maya nods, “If you're certain.”

As they start hashing out the details, her Elemental Sight catches Hayama saying her name in his conversation with Mitsugu, “Lady Toshiko’s loyalty is not questionable. She has no loyalty to the likes of you and others of the older generation but would not betray the likes of Lady Maya or the younger generation. The only way she wouldn't help them is if they betrayed her first, which would not make any subsequent actions from her a betrayal.”

Mitsugu bursts out at that, “How could you possibly show so much trust in her of all people?! If nothing else, if she learns about when she was a baby-!”

Hayama stares him down blandly, “Lord Mitsugu, Lady Toshiko learned of the way the late Lady Keiko tried to kill her and the way a good portion of you were advocating for her death before Lady Maya even restored her to the family. If she was going to become an enemy of the Yotsuba for that… history, she already would have struck us down. There is a reason Lady Maya imposed the rule that no one in the family, not even her, is permitted to give Lady Toshiko orders, even if she only said it was due to a ‘strained relationship’. It's also the reason Sir Sora(1) was so prepared for hostility during the lock down that saw him breaking into the Main House."

"If you think back on things, you may notice a… pattern in exactly which throats he had those icicles creeping towards when he felt the need to make it clear that he could and would kill a good portion of the Yotsuba if he felt it necessary. Lady Toshiko has had both plenty of opportunities and every reason from her point of view to turn on the Yotsuba in the past.”

Mitsugu's expression is utterly horrified, “Th-that… You can't be serious… how could she possibly..?”

Hayama raises an eyebrow, “You saw for yourself the skill Lady Toshiko has with mental magics when she dealt with Tatsurou and his mistress. Lady Toshiko may generally respect people's privacy when it comes to their minds, but what reason would she have to afford that to those who have been nothing but hostile to her?” She hadn't thought it was possible, but Mitsugu grows even more appalled at that. Hayama shakes his head, “Hostiles such as the majority of the older generations' attitudes towards her, which means the majority of the Yotsuba are not capable of keeping secrets from Lady Toshiko.”

He gives Mitsugu a moment to open and close his mouth, looking for a response before shaking his head again, “Lady Toshiko has her own reasons for not turning on the Yotsuba. All due respect Lord Mitsugu, but I am certainly not going to complicate and strain her relationship with the Yotsuba even further and make things more complicated for Lady Maya. As such, unless you have something else you wish to say Lord Mitsugu?” Mitsugu weakly shakes his head, and Hayama bows, “Then excuse me.”

She'd been continuing to hammer out the details with Maya to make sure they don't unintentionally complicate things for one another over the course of their separate investigations even as she watched Hayama's conversation in vague worry that Mitsugu may do something rash. Now that the two have gone their separate ways though, she focuses more firmly on Maya.

She hums as she eyes the base, “We'll have to be careful about casualties. From what I can see of people's Eidos’ there's some mind control or brainwashing happening, so…”

Sora hums in understanding from his place at her side in full Black Reaper gear and under Hei Polyjuice runes, “That complicates things a bit since we have to be careful.”

Hoshi was on her other side, gazing at the base in thought, similarly decked out in gear she made later in her life as Calanthe just for times Bai needed to do some of the kind of work that needed it. It wasn't quite as powerful as Sora's mask, but that was just because she didn't have Basilisk eyes. It was on the same level as his coat though, since nothing super rare like the eyes went into it.

Hoshi glances over at her, “I assume we're knocking out the power and the backup power to knock out the lights then apparating in?”

She hums in agreement, though given Tōkōkuro Mihana officially has Calanthe's face, to prevent it from being tied back to her, even though she has a runic Polyjuice Calanthe transformation, she actually borrowed her old friend Daphne's appearance since while she'll obviously never know, she would understand if she somehow did find out and wouldn't mind which made her more comfortable using her face, “Yeah. I've just about located and marked the last of the camera wiring on all the circuits to knock them out at the same time separately from the power just to be safe and also deal with the handful that possesses internal batteries. We'll do it at the same time the power goes out to cover up how it happened.”

She shrugs, “It means we won't have to hide the previous magic.” Which is just her way of being vague while referencing their previous life's magic just in case anyone overhears, “Which should make it significantly easier. I'll deploy a barrier the moment we go in to make sure no one gets away, we'll knock the asshole out so I can double check there isn't anything else as well as take something of a tax for causing so much trouble and endangering so many people in the form of his magical knowledge, and then we'll quickly knock everyone else out so no one potentially being mind controlled or brainwashed dies getting the base back under control.”

Sora nods, “Works for me.”

Hoshi makes an agreeing hum, and they're all quiet for a moment while she finishes mentally marking all the cameras. She sends them both a quick telepathic image of where they were apparating to, and at her signal, they knock the cameras and power out simultaneously. Immediately, they apparate in and she tosses a barrier up around the base even as that Zhou asshole scrambles back in alarmed surprise at the lights going out and what little he can make out of them appearing. Without hesitation, she sends a stunning spell at him, knocking him out in an instant while Sora and Hoshi do the same to some of the other military personnel that happened to be in the room at the same time.

Once they're down, she turns towards the vague outline of Sora's Hei form that she can make out, “Given he's the priority target, I'll stay here to make sure he doesn't somehow wake up and slip away and also hold the fort here to serve as you two's fall back point in case you get into trouble, though I'll keep an eye on you two with Elemental Sight just to be safe.”

Sora grins under his mask, which she can only see because of her Elemental Sight, “Works for me.” Then he glances at his sister to say teasingly, “Been quite a while since we've taken over a military base, hasn't it? 

Hoshi grins back, “I was starting to get a bit bored!”

She rolls her eyes and waves towards the door, “Go cause some mayhem.”

Sora gives a cheerful joking salute, “Yes ma'am!”

Then the two head out to cause trouble. She keeps to her promise to keep an eye on them while they're tearing through the Uji(2) second supply base in case they need emergency help, but while that's happening, she splits her focus on eliminating any chance of Zhou being a threat. Namely, since magic sequences go from the magic calculation area to what's known at the ‘Gate’ between the Eidos subconscious brain and physical conscious brain, she'd developed a magic sequence known as ‘Gatekeeper’ which scrambles any magic sequence passing through the Gate from a structured magic sequence into useless nonsense.

She uses the old Yotsuba flash cast engraving method to carve it into his Gate, where it'll draw from his own magic, whether he wants it to or not. It had required adding in some magic sequence to resist repairing the carving without a specific spell that basically has a metaphorical key essentially programmed in to also make Gatekeeper itself draw on his magic to resist attempts to repair the carving to prevent anyone getting their hands on Yuuka and her respective advancements and using them illegally in a prison break or something, but it was worth the effort to make it.

Once that's done and Zhou is physically incapable of casting magic, she turns her attention more firmly to keeping an eye on her husband and sister in law and watching anyone approaching the door. Not that either is really necessary. She's been keeping an eye on them for emergency assistance, but they've been tearing through the base so easily that just in the time it took her to carve Gatekeeper they've already knocked out about half of those in the base, which wasn't surprising when they could just drop people with a quick stunner. It also means there's no one in any position to even attempt to assault her location. So no one is even close to her.

Given what's left of the soldiers are starting to group up inevitably making it more difficult, she doesn't dare turn her attention away. Once the last inside have fallen, which includes the people who'd been patrolling or guarding entrances since they'd been called inside to help with the defense, she sweeps it for anyone still conscious just to be certain then sends a telepathic message to the two since it'd be a waste of time for them to sweep the base to make sure they got everyone.

As they start making their leisurely way back to her, she opens up her secure line to Kyouko-nee, explaining that the original plan had just been for more of a precision strike to grab Zhou and leave, but after she noticed how many were mind controlled or brainwashed, they'd knocked out the entire base to prevent any casualties from the JDFS having to take it back by force. Kyouko takes a bit to get back to her, but while on some level they would have preferred if she left it to military police, given she'd done it to prevent potential casualties since they were being mentally manipulated, they couldn't really complain so Kazama had asked her to pass on her thanks for ensuring the mentally manipulated soldiers were secured nonlethally so they could work to undo the magic on them.

While she does respond and there's a brief back and forth on some details, that basically wraps up the conversation.

She looks over the information she'd had Rowena pluck from Zhou's mind, having basically copied all of it from his head before she handed him over. Which not only meant that they'd gained all of his magical knowledge, but they'd also confirmed he did have a backer, an old colleague. It was actually one of the ‘Seven Sages’, Jiedo Heigu also known as Gu Jie. His entire motivation was utterly ridiculous too.

Story was, he was originally from Dahan, and he'd made a magic known as the ‘Surgery of Perpetual Youth’, but it was later discovered that while it made one seem young, both visually and in the lack of breakdown in their body having a harder and harder time from aching joints and the like, it didn't give one a longer life. He'd made it during some sort of race to prove their supremacy between the Ancient and Modern Magicians and had given it to a bunch of politicians and the like.

After they found out that it didn't actually extend life though, the higher ups who'd gotten it all became utterly enraged about it and had banished all of their Ancient Magicians. Jiedo and Zhou had sworn revenge on Dahan, but then Dahan had enraged the Yotsuba and kicked off that whole ‘Untouchables’ incident that ended in Dahan's destruction. You'd think Jiedo and Zhou would be pleased, but they'd in turn become enraged at the Yotsuba ‘stealing’ their revenge from them, and turned that hatred onto the Yotsuba.

Regardless, Zhou was no longer a threat, and she knew Jiedo's plans. He was actually behind Blanche. And No-Head Dragon for that matter. As well as the one who, along with Zhou, was stoking the flames of the Anti-magician movement before she'd popped that bubble with her paper.

It was kinda funny actually. She'd been destroying all of his plans this whole time, and she hadn't even known. He wasn't done though. Last Zhou heard, he was already working on a plan to steal a bunch of missiles from the USNA and come over to Japan, and he also intended to use both his ‘Zombiemaker’ magic -which essentially killed someone mentally, acted as life support, and Puppeted their corpse- to create suicide bombers to hit the next Ten Master Clans Conference.

If he got any of the Heads, great, but he was actually aiming to revitalize the divide between magicians and non-magicals because he knew that between how much actually relied on them as well as the fact a terrorist attack was actually fundamentally a civilian police matter at its core that they'd prioritize getting to safety first, and only then would they reach out to the police to offer assistance with the incident.

While she herself was more of a ‘protect innocents at nearly any cost’ she knows others aren't, and that it doesn't inherently make them evil or anything. To that end, it was a perfectly natural course of action to take to remove yourself from the dangerous situation first and then see if you can assist. He was aiming to make the Ten Master Clans Heads look like the bad guys for extracting themselves from a terrorist attack though, which was frankly ridiculous since it actually was helpful overall to confirm to the police that such high priority targets are secure and they don't have to waste any efforts trying to secure them.

But people weren't always rational, especially in the face of tragedy, and she hates the fact that it would work, at least to begin with. It may be an uphill battle, but it was entirely possible they could get people to understand that it actually did help the police by freeing up whatever focus they'd have to have on tracking them down to make sure they were fine and all that so they could focus more on dealing with the innocent masses caught up in such an attack and helping them.

Shaking her head angrily to shift her attention away from the foul mood the info she's been looking over has put her in, she gives Rowena an order to utilize her hacked Hliðskjálf access -which doesn't save her history and make it available to the ‘Sages’, and that Rowena has been mostly using to keep track of Jiedo since she started going over the memories- to back the findings from Zhou's mind with any video and texts and the like she can and let her know when Jeido is forty-eight hours out from Japan.

Having noticed something… concerning about Kudou Minoru when he was presenting the Thesis for Second High she had looking a bit deeper out of worry for him. After what she'd learned from that, she'd made an appointment through Kyouko-nee to meet with Elder Kudou, Minoru, and Kyouko's parents at minimum, though assumably Kyouko herself and Minoru's parents will be there as well.

Even with that though, she has to admit she's a bit surprised when it's a smiling Kyouko herself on the built-in screen and not a servant who answers when she hits the intercom buzzer on the gate, “Welcome Toshiko. Please come in.”

The gate starts opening as she says the last bit before the screen goes dark. Heading into the gate, she's not surprised when the door on the Western style three story house opens on Kyouko as she's walking up. Kyouko steps out of the doorway to let her enter when she gets close enough, closing the door behind her before moving to walk in front of her, flashing her a smile as she passes, “This way please.”

She follows Kyouko upstairs to the top floor and is led into a larger room. Elder Kudou stands up as she enters, gesturing with his hand, “Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable Miss Shiba.”

She settles down on the stuffed chair Elder Kudou indicated which had a cup of tea placed in front of it on the coffee table, setting the bag she'd brought with her on her lap. As she'd asked, Kyouko's parents were also there along with Minoru and Elder Kudou, and as she'd suspected, Kyouko was obviously there and so were Minoru's parents.

It's Elder Kudou who speaks after she's settled, voice turning more serious, “Kyouko indicated that you may have a solution for Minoru's weak constitution?”

She nods, “Yes. That being said,” She looks over at Kyouko who looks even more nervous at her gaze settling on her, “there's no real way around the revelation of Mihana.”

Some of Kyouko's nervousness disappears as her eyes go wide, “Are you certain?”

She nods and Kyouko searches her face, “Yes, and it's been cleared as well, though while I doubt I need to say it, it needs to remain private.”

Elder Kudou looks at Kyouko with a bemused expression, “If you truly do have a way to help Minoru more permanently, it would be shameful to turn around and air secrets, but what are we discussing?”

Kyouko takes a deep breath, “The fact that Toshiko is Tōkōkuro Mihana.” Minoru's father chokes on his own tea a bit, but other then a worried glance, Kyouko ignores him to turn a slightly strained smile on her grandfather, “Or rather, given she specializes in software and magic sequence construction and was joined by a hardware genius later, she's the Mihana to his Tōkōkuro as they like to put it.”

Elder Kudou tilts his head at her in curiosity, “And this is necessary information regarding Minoru because..?”

She hums, “Have you read the paper regarding magicians and non-magicians and the actual differences?” He nods, “Then you'd be aware I mentioned noticing something else. I'm currently in the process of the last part of data gathering and putting together the paper on the development of magician fetuses. It's that part that's relevant to Minoru here.”

Minoru's mother bristles slightly, “Are you saying it's my fault?”

She lifts the hand she had laying on the arm of the chair, placing the tip of her pointer finger to her temple and the back of her second finger to her cheek, “The only fault that's yours is being a surrogate for a child you have no genetic relationship to.”

Minoru's mother seems to deflate with the confusion that descends on them all, “As I said, I'm still working on the paper, so don't expect a perfectly put together presentation. That being said, genetics are only responsible for about half of how a magician develops. The rest is done by the mother’s -sometimes with help from the father's- Eidos self nurturing the fetus’ Eidos. For magicians it's particularly important for stabilizing the magic calculation area."

"The problem is, the mother connects to the fetus via their shared genes, so if you're unrelated to the child, the mom can't connect properly. It's not a big deal for practically any other kind of baby, but in the case of a developing magician and the nurturing and stabilizing the developing magic calculation area…” She shrugs, “Add in a significant amount of power, which the magic calculation area actually manages and regulates, and what would otherwise be miniscule issues from the parents being related and it's a recipe for disaster.”

Minoru looks devastated, “But there's nothing we can do about any of that!”

She shakes her head, “I've developed something of a magical gene therapy extensive enough it can rewrite your genetics enough to replace one of your parents.”

A stunned silence descends at the bombshell of the fact she'd reworked a blood adoption ritual from her old life to the magic of this one after she saw Minoru and what's wrong with his health, even if they don't know that particular detail.

She shrugs, “It's a bit of a strange amalgamation between Ancient Magic I couldn't really translate in a way that would function and Modern Magic and I actually have everything needed to do it,” She lifts the bag she brought with her a smidge, “if you can reach a decision on who's genetics to overwrite today. Though, I should warn you, by my estimation you'll lose about a quarter of your magic power due to the overwrite.”

Minoru's father, the current head of the Kudou clan, Makoto, bristles at that, “There must be a way to preserve it! Losing that amount of power is entirely unacceptable-!”

Minoru had ducked his head as Makoto had started speaking before interrupting coldly, “My father.” She tilts her head as he lifts his gaze to settle blazing eyes on her, “I'd prefer to overwrite my father’s genetics.”

Makoto chokes, “Minoru! How could you possibly-!”

Minoru snaps angrily at that, “Because it was your egotistical instance on producing a child stronger than you that got me into this mess to begin with! And when a solution to finally make me healthy once and for all with the only cost being some of that power you oh so carefully cultivated is presented, your first response is that it's unacceptable! You've never acted like a real father to me, so why would I want to keep your genetics?! Yes, it's not like Aunt Naomi has ever been a mom to me, but out of everyone in the family, those who have always been there for me the most are Grandfather and Kyouko! If I have my pick, it's being Kyouko's brother I can't stand the idea of losing!”

Makoto places his teacup down harshly, “Minoru-!”

Elder Kudou seems to have hit the end of his own fuse, “Enough Makoto! You have made your bed. Now you must lie in it. I let you go too far before which, as Minoru put it, led to this mess to begin with. I will not tolerate you jeopardizing the blessing we cannot even begin to repay if it truly works due to your pride.” He pins the man under his gaze as he shrinks away, and after a beat of watching him shrink and cringe away and poorly try to suppress his anxious squirming, Elder Kudou lets out a huff before he turns to her, voice becoming respectful, “And you're certain this will solve the problem, if part of it is due to nurturing and stabilization from the mother during development?”

Ignoring the pathetic man, she nods at the Elder, “Yes. In and of itself it's not as big of a problem as people think. There's a reason that the older a modified magician of some sort or another gets, the less likely they are to burn out. Namely, if they didn't quite develop right, if given the opportunity, the magician will actually shore up and stabilize their own magic calculation area over time.”

Kyouko gives her another surprised look, “Really? So then… even for some sort of genetically modified magician, it's not entirely without hope?”

She nods, “Yes, but while it's true that Minoru is also slowly reinforcing his magic calculation area like any magician born with a less stable one, for one thing, it will take decades by my calculation for you to even begin to see a noticeable improvement, and his situation is so bad it wouldn't even be resolved by the end of a normal lifespan.”

Elder Kudou sighs tiredly at that news, “Then, we truly owe you our gratitude for being willing to assist us. The Kudou clan will certainly owe you some sort of favor for this blessing.”

Kyouko twists her fingers, “Assumably, this is meant to help with handling the way things like that are complicating the situation, but is there anything we can do about his unstable magic calculation area?”

She hums, “I've been in contact with a researcher I know who was herself in the know about where the magic calculation area is located, as I would like to remind you that I wrote that paper a while ago and just hadn't publicly released it since I didn't think the world was ready for that given all the… issues that have been occurring between the magically active and magically inactive."

"I've been sharing my findings in the ongoing study with her as I gathered the data and she's already begun looking into stabilizing magic calculation areas post birth. So while I didn't tell her his name or anything to respect Minoru's privacy in case he didn't want her to know, I explained the situation to her and she believes that once I've dealt with the… genetic entanglement complicating things and activelydestabilizing Minoru's magic calculation area, she'll be able to help stabilize his magic calculation area like it should've been in the womb. Her name is Tsukuba Yuuka and I can give you her contact info if you're interested?”

Minoru glances up at Elder Kudou briefly to make sure he isn't against it, then turns to her and nods rapidly, “Yes! Yes, please.”

She pulls her mobile terminal out to forward Yuuka's info to the teary Kyouko, who gazes at the message hungrily like it's a lifeline. Elder Kudou also looks more than a bit relieved before he turns back to her, “If I may, how did you even know about..?”

She shrugs, “I have a precision based Element Sight, its how I located the magic calculation area to begin with, and while we were at the Thesis Competition, I noticed the… problems with Minoru's magic calculation area's development, the concern drew my attention which caused me to notice the… similarities between the two halves of his genetics. I hope you understand that I wasn't trying to pry.”

Elder Kudou and Minoru both nod in acceptance of that, and it's around that time that Minoru's adoptive/surrogate mother -soon to be aunt-, who's been silent up until now, seeming to mull over the revelations, suddenly stirs, “How… How did you even notice that the mother has so much to do with such fetus development? Did you happen across a surrogate and notice the difference or something?”

She shakes her head, “That…” Then she glances up at the TV on the wall and gestures to it, “It may be easier to show you, do you mind if I connect?”

Elder Kudou holds his hand towards it, “Not in the slightest. By all means, please do.”

She pulls her mobile terminal back out, quickly connecting to the TV and pulling up the images generated from her using the spell and programming she and Rowena had made years ago to create images from the mind. In it, there are outlines of six different pregnant women in pairs of two, “So, this data isn't complete, but essentially, I started noticing that how the parents feel about the baby actually influences the baby. For simplicity's sake, let's just say that Mom is a perfectly average magician and it's dad's strength we're focusing on in this example, since there's slightly more value placed on male's when it comes to producing, probably because they can create multiple pregnancies a year. Anyway, as simple as possible, let's say Dad has a strength of one hundred points and everything has gone right on the genetic half to create a baby who's set to inherit all one hundred points of Dad’s strength, alright?”

She gets nods, so she clicks on the one of the two women in the middle third, causing the previously still image to start moving in an animation, “At which point, it may surprise you, but how Mom feels about the baby actually comes into play. This first one is a mother who feels neutrally about her baby, generally a mother who's only pregnant out of a social sense of obligation. There's not a whole lot to see, because there's nothing noteworthy, Mom has her hand resting casually on her baby bump and at most looks a bit distracted, right? Notice that glow going between Mom’s magic calculation area and baby's?”

She gets nods acknowledging the faint white glowing line connecting the two sort of like a string of soft Christmas lights and continues, “Good. These aren't proportional, they're just to get the idea across, but in this situation, that example one hundred strength points the baby is supposed to inherit ends up being more like ninety, they still get most of what their genetics contributed, but it doesn't fully come to fruition due to the fact Mom doesn't really care much about it's development one way or another. Moving on, we'll come back to her pair in the middle in a few moments.”

At that point she skips the woman paired with her in the middle and clicks the woman to the left, “Now, this is a mom who feels positively about her baby. This can be anything from feeling honored at contributing to a bloodline of high standing if they married in, pride at contributing to their own bloodline, or love. But I don't think I need to explain what that line between the two magic calculation area's being brighter and thicker means?” She gets nods, “Circling back to the one hundred points example, in this situation, the baby not only successfully inherits all one hundred, but since the mom even sometimes gives the baby pieces of her own magic calculation area, the baby will essentially get one hundred with an additional ten on top of that as a bonus. Oh, and don't worry about Mom literally giving parts of her magic calculation area, she'll recover fully if given time.”

As she'd said, the line between the two was significantly thicker and brighter, not so much Christmas lights, but with a thickness something more like an inch thick, and looking like a solid floodlight, and occasionally pieces break off of mom's magic calculation area, travel down the glowing line, and are absorbed by the fetus. The mom’s posture doesn't mean a whole lot in and of itself, but it helps clarify the difference in feeling, given unlike the first one she'd shown, this one was cradling her baby bump and stroking it lovingly.

She shakes her head, “The third one isn't… pleasant to think of, but it's necessary to talk about when in the context of what the mother's various feelings about the baby can mean for its development.”

She clicks on one of the two in the third pair, and the others immediately recoil away from the violence as the image starts moving, showing the mother's hands beating on her baby bump and while there's still a line between the two's magic calculation area's, this time the end with the fetus looks like it's sparking like the end of a broken electrical wire, actively damaging the fetus’ developing magic calculation area in the process.

She shakes her head, “But if Mom feels negatively about the baby, such as -excuse me for bringing up something so unsavory- a rape produced fetus that the mother may know intellectually isn't at fault but still hates as a living reminder of what she went though, she'll subconsciously attack and sabotage the developing fetus."

"Going back to that hundred point example, I can't say for sure if it's possible for the mother to sabotage them so much they don't even develop into an active magical in the end or if they come out as an inactive magical sometimes since the… research pool size for data on that one is thankfully low, so I can't rule out the possibility entirely. Of the pregnancies I have observed from the handful of mothers who felt negatively about the baby, again these aren't proportional, but the one hundred points of strength their genetics say they're supposed to have comes out more like eighty points from the mother's sabotage and attacking. They're also inherently more unstable like the worst cases of modified magicians.”

They all look a bit disturbed at the information, but Elder Kudou's voice is surprisingly stable, “And these pairs you've been skipping over?”

She smiles a bit thinly, “This all takes place in the information dimension, which isn't bound by the same laws as reality. These other halves are for Dad because he actually can continue to influence the fetus in the information dimension unlike in the physical world, and since he has the genetic connection to facilitate it... Anyway, his influence isn't as heavy since he doesn't have the same twenty-four seven access to the baby that Mom has, but…”

She shrugs, clicking above the three she'd played to show the ‘Positive: 100/100 inherited strength +10 from mom’, ‘Neutral: 90/100 inherited strength’, and ‘Negative: 80/100 inherited strength’ above each of the three she'd clicked on from left to right. Then she clicks on the pair with the negative emotions mom, and the male figure in it with the mother starts also beating on the baby bump and sending damaging spark like bursts of light into it from his magic calculation area before clicking above it to reveal ‘Negative from mom: 80/100 + Negative from dad: 70/100’ which thankfully stops the animation since they all look even more disturbed.

Then she clicks on the pair with the one in the middle to show the male figure with the pregnant woman with his hand absently laying on her stomach and that same weak line going between his magic calculation area, traveling down his arm and through his hand to the baby inside the womb. As she clicks to reveal the ‘Neutral from mom 90/100 + neutral from dad 95/100’, she glances over at them she adds, “Honesty, I couldn't say what the deciding factor on that is, but it's actually hit and miss on whether or not Dad will even interact with the babies development if it's neutral like a social obligation baby, but while Dad does help if he bothers to interact, again since he doesn't have the same twenty-four seven access as the mother, it's not as impactful.”

She gets understanding nods, so she clicks on the last of the three pairs, this time with the male figure kneeling in front of the female, cradling her in his arms, with his head resting on the mom’s baby bump. Much like with the mom, the line between him and the baby is thicker, brighter, and occasionally has the pieces that break off from his magic calculation area traveling down to the baby to be absorbed. After she lets that play for a minute, she clicks on an arrow in the top, causing the other images to move up and become smaller as that one expands and breaks into three images itself, “In the positive category, there actually is a difference on what kind of positive it is, or perhaps I should say: where it stems from. Much like the numbers, these aren't proportional and are just for the effect of example, but…”

She clicks on the leftmost one, and the breaking off pieces occur with the frequency of embers from a fire. She doesn't click on the top of all three together to bring up the ‘out of a hundred’ figures yet, instead clicking just below that above the leftmost one to reveal the words ‘honor at contributing to a bloodline of high standing’ which doesn't end the animation for comparison purposes. Then she clicks on the middle image, who has the male figure's magic calculation area break off pieces to give to the baby at a rate more similar to the consistency of a tide flowing back in after it ebbs, clicking to reveal the middle sections label of ‘pride at continuing their own bloodline’.

Then she clicks on the final one, revealing a consistent stream, like sand from an hourglass, though in the metaphor, it stops when the baby is born, but even then it hasn't run out. She clicks the label for that section to reveal it, reading no more and no less then ‘love’, before glancing up, “Again these aren't proportional and are just for demonstrative purposes, both the animation as well as the numbers, but…”

She clicks the blacked out label above all three, reading ‘Half as influential as mother's +10 example due to differences in access, father adds: Honor +4, Pride +5, Love +6’ then shakes her head in amusement, “As cheesy as it probably sounds, the data tells a story that love really does triumph over any other positive feelings the parents may have for the baby.” She laughs as she looks down at the tablet with bemusement, “It's funny really. Countries push so hard to produce more strong magicians that they practically treat said magicians as breeding stock and nothing else, basically encouraging society to pressure them to produce more magicians, when as it turns out, the best solution to producing strong magicians consistently is to treat their magicians like normal people. Because the easiest way to ensure a baby is loved is for it to be made with love.”

She looks back up at the TV as she pulls the positive, neutral, and negative examples back down and zooms in on the example numbers above them, “Given the fact these will compound with each generation, in a funny turn of events, while it may cause quantity to dip a little, it would increase quality if we started focusing on nurturing healthy relationships and all that.” She laughs a little, looking over at the stunned Kudou family in amusement, “Honestly, if we really want to promote strong magicians, hilariously I'd actually suggest doing something like creating a dating app or something similar specifically for magicians to promote them developing genuine relationships.”

She has to admit, when she'd noticed the trend and started looking into it and had the data start backing up her suspicions that she'd been somewhat gleeful. Because this gave her an in to working towards fixing this skewed world on a societal level, even more than her worldwide message had since it was backed by legitimate reasons even the governments couldn't deny. Though there was a small part of her that wondered what sort of properties the Basilisk meat had to have strengthened Hei and Misaki's magic calculation areas.

She's pulled from the odd question lingering in the back of her mind as Kyouko starts laughing at what she'd said, burying her face in her hands, “I don't know what's funnier! That a dating app for magicians of all things being your recommendation for improving both society and overall national magician power at the same time, or the fact you aren't wrong!”

She chuckles as she places her tablet down on her lap, “I should also note that due to also possessing a genetic connection, other blood related family members can also influence the fetus with how they do also being dependent on how they feel towards the baby, but they're an even weaker influence then the father.”

Which made her wonder more than once about her own development given from her understanding the Yotsuba as a whole, and particularly her own mother's identical twin sister were hoping and praying she'd be the living embodiment of their hopes and dreams of ensuring the Yotsuba could never be hurt like Dahan's strike had again. Given the data the study has been producing… It's probably not inaccurate to say this body she was born to in this life and its born specializations were the crystallization of the entire Yotsuba Clan nurturing her as a fetus and giving her pieces of their own magic calculation areas. Which makes it all the more ironic that they see her as a monster now. She'll have to make sure to rub that into the faces of the likes of Mitsugu and Osamu.

She shakes her head, tucking the thought away once more, “Anyway, as I said prior, the data isn't fully complete though that's more of a formality at this point since I've yet to see any deviations that weren't resolved after carefully not leading questions on whether the mother was being honestdidn't turn out to be because she wasn't, and I'm not done with the paper on it of course. If you'd like though, I can send you copies of them?”

Her amusement comes back a little as she smiles faintly, “Actually, given the general attitude towards producing magicians, I've been trying to figure out the best way to handle the fact that the best thing for it is actually Mom feeling positive about the baby in some capacity, so I'm almost tempted to ask you for your advice on the presentation Elder Kudou if not outright requesting to call upon your reputation and have you do the presentation, but while I wasn't after that, it seems a cheap thing to spend a favor on if you're gonna be talking about repayment…”

Elder Kudou barks out a laugh at that, “Oh if it truly works, we would certainly owe you! But even ignoring that it's such a cheap thing to ask for in and of itself just through the lens of advice, given such a thing impacts not only the lives of magicians on a personal level but also the strength of our nation and even the betterment of the world, I would be honored to assist, regardless of whether that's just in giving you advice or even in the form of utilizing the respect I have by me being the one to make the presentation. Perhaps it is the first step to emptying Morals’ grave rather than leaving it to rot yet.”

Her gaze immediately snaps to his at that last bit, finding his eyes shining in utter satisfaction. He knows. He absolutely knows she was the one behind the worldwide mental message. She supposes it's his way of letting her know without outright saying it. Well, at least from his expression, rather than being upset, he approves. He could definitely cause problems for her if he didn't.

…She supposes if nothing else, while obviously she's grateful for the fact he seems to approve and isn't even trying to make his insight known, she also needs to be grateful for the fact he hasn't done like… a few too many people have done and decided that either the entity behind the Death of Morals message was a god from whatever religion they practiced before, or even picked up religion out of adamant belief that it could only have been a god given she hadn't just spoken to every mind in the world simultaneously, but even adjusted the message based on age and even delivered it in every recipient's primary language. Some of them even started a new religion.

The entire thing makes her uncomfortable as all hell. The worst ones were probably those who were somewhat logical about it, since it was harder to argue back, like that group who decided that voice belonged to a young god, which is why they've never spoken up before, and they used human terms like ‘breaking into servers’ and all that to try to simultaneously minimize the chances of freaking people out while maximizing people taking it seriously.

…Surprisingly given how supportive they usually were, her soulmates hadn't been very helpful with her distress about it for once, finding it hilarious that she'd unintentionally convinced a lot of people she was a god.(3)

Makoto bristles at that in annoyance, “That again father?”

Elder Kudou looks over at him, expression and tone calm, “That message spoke nothing but the truth. Arguing over it yet again is not why we're here however.”

That seems to snap Minoru, who's been gazing at her with starry respectful eyes out of it, “Right! My weak constitution!”

She nods, “As I said, if you know which parents’ DNA you want to rewrite, I can do it today, and once it's done you'll just need to get into contact with Yuuka so she can assist with your unstable magic calculation area. All I need is Minoru himself to cast the magic on him, a sample of who is contributing the new genetics, and somewhere he can get comfortable since the spell takes about two hours to fully rewrite his genetics and it's not the rare sort that I can just cast it and it'll run its course.”

Minoru glances at his grandfather, then at his uncle, “I know it's a sudden and admittedly significant request to make, but it was a serious request to ask you to be the one to overwrite my father’s DNA, and I was serious when I said that between being my father’s son and Kyouko's brother, it was the latter I couldn't bare to give up. It obviously doesn't have to be you specifically, but given the awkward explanations and assumptions about an affair when people found out I was related to Naomi and not you, would you…”

His uncle, Kyouko's father Nagamasa, smiles lightly, utterly ignoring the way Makoto was glaring daggers at him as he glances between Minoru and Elder Kudou, “If that is what you'd prefer, and Retsu backs up your decision, I have no qualms about it.”

Minoru beams happily and Elder Kudou nods in satisfaction. She smiles as claps happily, “Great! I just need a blood sample from Mister Nagamasa and somewhere Minoru can be comfortable while I cast the magic then!”

Makoto snaps to his feet and storms off in rage, his wife hurrying behind him, trying to calm him, but none of them really pay attention. She blinks rapidly, “Ah! I just remembered I should warn you. Given how long you've had health issues for, your body may have some issues adjusting for the first couple of weeks, so please don't be alarmed if you have another episode of your constitution hitting you. It's nothing to be concerned over unless they're still happening in a month or so from my estimation, but even then it's not like anything like this has been done,” In this world, with these methods, for these reasons anyway, “so it may take a bit longer since it's just an estimate purely from my professional experience rather than based on previous data or anything.”

Minoru nods in understanding, still smiling, “A few more weeks is nothing compared to the possibility of finally being free from the chains this body was born with.”

She laughs lightly, but can't really dispute that, as they quickly get started.

She answers the phone call from Kyouko happily, which no one whether it be Kazama, Maya, nor her mom was interfering with since they have legitimate reasons unrelated to the military at the moment given their regular calls touching base on how Minoru is coming along and the observation study paper she was putting together and the presentation she was collaborating with Elder Kudou on, “Kyouko-nee, it's good to hear from you.”

Kyouko is smiling cheerfully, but she's been all but glowing with happiness in practically all of their calls since she helped Minoru, “You as well Toshiko!”

She shakes her head in amusement at Kyouko's recent glee, “I assume Minoru is still doing well? Coming along nicely in his magic calculation area reinforcement treatments and all that?”

Kyouko tucks her hair behind her ears, “Mm! He's been getting so much better so quickly! It's almost unbelievable!”

She nods, “I'm glad to hear that. Have you decided on the cover you're all going to use when he transfers to the Fujibayashi family and changes his last name legally?”

Kyouko gives a nod of her own, “Yeah. Grandfather decided that the official story is going to be that we were concerned enough about Minoru's weak health and the possibility of someone putting in even a fraction of less effort if they knew he was a Fujibayashi rather than a Kudou that we lied for his sake to ensure the best possible care for him. While obviously Mother was born a Kudou and married out, given there is a little bit of difference on the weight given to the main house of a prestigious family like the Kudou compared to a branch family, we're all confident that it's perfectly believable.”

She hums in agreement, “Sounds reasonable to me. Has Elder- sorry, habit. Has Retsu,” After it had become clear that her and Yuuka's treatments were working, Elder Kudou had practically insisted she call him by his first name, “received the last of the data now that the observation of magician pregnancies is over?”

Kyouko nods, “Yes. Grandfather looked it over to see if there was anything new, but from what he told me, there still weren't any deviations from what was expected right up to the end?”

She huffs in amusement, “No, there weren't. Honestly, I kept waiting to find some sort of outliers given I wasn't expecting it to act like it was some sort of universal law, and yet…” She shakes her head, “Well, that isn't to say there aren't of course, but there certainly weren't any in our observation, so if there are the scale of the sample size in and of itself tells us they're rare. It was actually almost alarming how many volunteers we had to be honest.”

Kyouko laughs lightly, “What do you expect when Tōkōkuro Mihana requests volunteers for an observational study? Of course there was a massive turnout.” Kyouko shakes her head in amusement, “Anyway, Grandfather is in the process of making notes on his own thoughts as well as the beginnings of the presentation and the latest draft of the paper you sent on how to handle the seminar. From what he's told me, he expressed that while he had zero desire to steal your thunder, it may genuinely be wiser to utilize his reputation given how massive this news is and how much it will shake the very foundations of how the world at large has looked at and treated magicians in general.”

She laughs, “I've told you before Kyouko-nee! I don't actually like attention. I would've done the presentation through my Mihana H3 if I had to since this is too important not to make sure the information properly spreads, but that doesn't mean I'd like or enjoy it. If he's willing and even thinks it'd be smarter if he was the one to do it, I'm more than happy to hand it over to his experienced hands.”

Kyouko laughs, “I know! And I told him that, but he insisted I mention it anyway.”

She shakes her head in amusement, “I'll make sure to send him the final version of my paper as soon as possible so it doesn't potentially slow his putting together the presentation down then. It shouldn't need it, but please pass along a message that if he thinks there's something that needs reworded or there's something he's going to use in the seminar that he feels will add to it that I certainly won't be insulted. Just because I'm confident in my work doesn't mean I'm above constructive criticism or advice.”

Kyouko smiles, “I know you aren't, and I'm sure grandfather has realized it as well, but I'll pass it along.”

She nods, “Thank you. Anyway, I'll talk to you later Kyouko-nee.”

The older woman nods, “Mm. Later Toshiko!”

With that, the call ends and she settles in to get comfortable to work on finishing her paper on the findings from the study. When she's done with that though, given her long time project was nearing the six month mark before its supposed to be revealed, she'll need to start reaching out to the suitable candidates Rowena had found. She's got an international organization to put together after all. That Asha Chandrasekhar woman seems particularly pleasant from what Rowena dug up on potential candidates, she'll have to clue them in on what's going on before the public announcement to recruit them obviously, but given Rowena's thorough sorting, she's confident that they won't go revealing it early even if they turn her down.

She tilts her head in concern when she sees who's calling, answering quickly, “Katsushige? Is everything alright? We just had our biweekly meeting a few days ago, so…”

He lets out an explosive breath, “No, it's not. My father has given me the dumbest order I've ever heard.”

She raises an eyebrow, “That's quite an achievement given how foolish he can be.”

Katsushige barks a laugh, “Well you aren't wrong about that!” Then he shakes his head firmly, “Anyway, you know that Lady Maya made it clear that this year’s attendance to the New Year's gathering is mandatory due to the fact she'll be announcing the Heir, right?”

She nods, “Yeah, she even invited Sora, Miho, and Hoshi for some reason. I mean, I know technically Sora is my fiancé officially, but usually partners aren't invited to the Yotsuba main house until after marriage. Sure, he knows where it is unlike most, but… And even then, I don't really get why Miho and Hoshi were drawn in.”

He waves a hand near his head like he's waving an insect away, “That's not important right now. I don't know what the hell they think they're doing, but apparently a few of the branch family heads are dead set on preventing the Shiba from attending. Not like Lady Maya will be angry at you guys even if they succeed or that it'll change anything, but…” He releases an explosive breath, “Father has insisted that if the others’ plans fall through, I'm to act as the final hurdle and unlike the rest, it's not even going to be even passingly anything but sabotage since he wants me, Kotona, and Kanata to stop you guys’ car and fight you.”

She gives him a dumbfounded look, “Excuse me? Aren't the Yotsuba all about keeping a low profile and all that? In what way is stopping a car on the road and starting a fight remotely low profile?”

He huffs, “From my understanding, they intend to deploy other magicians good at sensory interference magic to hide it. That's not even important in my opinion. They're so dead set on you not being at this year's gathering that they're trying to harm you. ”

She hums, “What on earth are they so concerned about keeping us away for?” 

Katsushige gains a flicker of amusement at that, “You can be blind in the strangest ways sometimes mom.”

She blinks rapidly, “Pardon?”

He waves it off, “Don't worry about it. What are you going to do though? I mean, don't get me wrong, I know full well even the three of us together are no match for you, but…”

She snorts, “Don't worry about it. I'll just apparate myself, Mom, and Yuki to the main house the day we're set to arrive.” She grins, “Probably rile them on the clan heads chat. Been a while since I've done that.”

He barks a laugh, then the smile that had bubbled up fades as realization crosses his face, “But Yuki doesn't know about…”

She rolls her eyes, “I'll just tell him it's a technique I created after I made the Teleport Gates that only a handful of people are aware of at the moment and I haven't made it public since I don't appreciate the possibility of people abusing it. He won't even question it.”

Katsushige blinks as he looks down and leans back, “Oh yeah, that would work just fine, wouldn't it?”

She nods, “Mm. And as long as I send the message to rile them, they shouldn't even make you waste your time waiting for us. Even if they do though, you can just get comfortable while you kill time waiting for them to realize it wasn't a bluff.”

He nods slowly, “Alright… Yeah, that'll work.” Then he shakes himself and glances to the side, “Anyway, I'm actually at my father's house right now. Kotona and Kanata bought me a bit of secured seclusion to get in touch, but I really can't linger. I'll see you at the gathering though.”

She nods, “See you later Katsushige.”

The call ends immediately after that, but that's not surprising since Katsushige said he couldn't linger. She hums as she gets up to head downstairs to speak to her mother.